Jury: Man killed, stuffed woman in suitcase

MURRIETA  A Lake Elsinore man was found guilty Thursday of strangling his girlfriend and stuffing her body inside a suitcase left at a Poway motel.

Jurors deliberated about a half a day before convicting Joseph David Dorsey, 28, of first-degree murder in the death of Christine Stewart, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Dorsey faces 57 years to life in prison when he is sentenced in Murrieta Superior Court.

The 47-year-old Canyon Lake woman was reported missing Aug. 6, after she failed to show up for her job as a behavioral health specialist at a Hemet drug rehabilitation center.

A day before Stewart was reported missing, Dorsey had checked into a Poway motel with a large rolling suitcase. He never checked out.

On Aug. 8, employees discovered Dorsey was gone but had left the 3-foot long case behind.

The body of Stewart — who was 5 feet 2 inches and 100 pounds — was found inside the case.

A search of Dorsey’s apartment turned up Stewart’s purse. Her vehicle was parked nearby. Dorsey could not be found.

In October, Mexican authorities arrested Dorsey in Rosarito and handed him over to U.S. officials.

At a pretrial hearing in February, the prosecution played a videotaped interview of Dorsey with a detective after his arrest.

Dorsey told the detective he had used his hands to choke Stewart and had done so with a feeling of detachment — “like it wasn’t even me” — in his apartment.

In the interview, he said he also strangled her with a cellphone cord, then put her in the bathtub and held her head under water for 20 minutes.